Europe´s Universities and institutions with a focus on educational technology are not yet collaborating effectively to support the European EdTech industry, because of the lack of a common platform to share experiences, concerns, research and best practices. There are different reasons - language, time and distance barriers - that are hindering effective communication between various EdTech initiatives and preventing them from collaborating at European level. The European EdTech Network is the first strategic partnership in the EU bringing together teachers, researchers and entrepreneurs in the field of education and digital technologies, through University-managed innovation programs (including incubators and accelerators), in order to promote digital methods and pedagogies that will ultimately improve higher education systems. Four prestigious, innovative and technology focused Universities are leading the EEN, each one bringing a different geographic scope, diverse expertise and unique inputs into the project activities, but all of them very much focused in closing the gap between entrepreneurs (who often have no educative background) and the real needs of the higher education: IE University, from Spain, leading the project; Oulu University of Applied Sciences from Finland; KU of Leuven from Belgium and University College of London from the UK. The project also incorporates as Associates the EdTech Collider/ EPFL (Switzerland) and Mindcet/ CET (Israel) given their leadership in EdTech and unique contributions to the project´s objectives, and will seek to enlarge its members with other relevant European Universities during the project´s duration. Key specific objectives of the EEN are: - To exchange information, know-how and good practices in the field of edtech; - To support European EdTech startups and entrepreneurs in their efforts to gain quality and competitiveness and make them familiar with the empirical findings of research on EdTech; - To promote ICT tools, pedagogies and methodologies as the drivers of improvement of the high education system – its quality, access and inclusion; - To foster entrepreneurship in the field of education and training. A core action will be the Intensive Study Programs (ISP´s), with a unique approach bringing together 1) internationally-reknowned academics and sector specialists; 2) world leading researchers in the fields of education, sciences and technology; 3) relevant and succesful entrepreneurs and startup founders; 4) expert mentors , coaches and staff from the different Universities; 5) reputed industry experts. The ISPs aim to bring unrivaled agenda content and act as catalyst for elevating dialogue and cooperation among Universities and entrepreneurs, exchange knowledge and train with top experts, in order to improve the educational systems in the partnering countries and beyond. They will a) enable participants to work in multinational groups with a strong multidisciplinary approach and so benefit from special learning conditions not available in a single participating University; b) encourage multinational learning of EdTech topics, helping the discovery and understanding of technological innovations and disruptions in the field of education and their possibilities of scalibility and sustainability; c) allow teachers and staff to exchange views and share innovative teaching and training methods, including entrepreneurial models in the field of edtech, and explore if they can become part of new international collaborations. An tangible output of the project will be the Edtech Platform. The project will provide universities, research and startups with an innovative educational platform containing: • OER - created and curated - of high quality regarding Education and Technology; • Methodologies for university-startup collaboration in the field of EdTech; • Information on innovative digital products/tools/methodologies from the universities and their startup & business networks. A strong dissemination of the IO is planned, promoting OER, methodologies and products which will result in adoption of digital technologies as drivers that will improve the efficiency and efficacy in higher education systems bu a) engaging and empowering learning through technology; b) teaching with technology; and c) assesments enabled by technology. This will be the first transnational platform of such kind at EHEA level, so the innovation is total. The EEN is strongly aligned with the October 2017 European Council call for training and education systems to be ‘fit for the digital age’ and the European Comission´s Action Plan on Digital Learning discussed recently in the 1st European Education Summit (Jan. 2018). It´s also linked directly to the European Strategy of Digital Single Market, one of the 10 priorities of EC, and the broader goal of maximizing the growth potential of the digital economy and of its society.
One of the identified challenges of European Universities and institutions with a focus on educational technology was lack of effective collaboration to support the European EdTech industry. There are different reasons - language, time and distance barriers - that are hindering effective communication between various EdTech initiatives and preventing them from collaborating at European level. The EEN project was designed to solve this issue by develping a common platform to share experiences, concerns, research and best practices, available at: https://eetn.eu/. The European EdTech Network is the first strategic partnership in the EU bringing together teachers, researchers and entrepreneurs in the field of education and digital technologies, through University-managed innovation programs (including incubators and accelerators), in order to promote digital methods and pedagogies, improving higher-education systems in collaboration with edtech businesses and innovators. Four prestigious, innovative and technology-focused Universities have been leading the EEN, each one bringing a different geographic scope, diverse expertise and unique inputs into the project activities, but all of them focused in closing the gap between entrepreneurs (who often have no educative background) and the real needs of HE: IE University (Spain) leading the project; Oulu University of Applied Sciences (Finland); KU of Leuven (Belgium) and University College of London (UK). At the moment of application, the project also incorporated as Associated Parthers, given their leadership in EdTech and unique contributions to the project´s objectives: - Swiss EdTech Collider/ EPFL (Switzerland) - Mindcet/ CET (Israel) During the lifetime of the project, EEN gained new Associated Partners from different EU countries and representing relevant European Univerities including: - Grenoble Ecole de Management (France) - Malta College of Arts, Science & Technology (Malta) - University of Münster (Germay) - Learnovate at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) - EDUCATE (UK) - Kempten University of Applied Sciences (Germany) - Linnaeus University (Sweden) - Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands) (all listed at: https://eetn.eu/partners.html) Key specific objectives of the EEN have been: - To exchange information, know-how and good practices in the field of edtech; - To support European EdTech startups and entrepreneurs in their efforts to gain quality and competitiveness and make them familiar with the empirical findings of research on EdTech; - To promote ICT tools, pedagogies and methodologies as the drivers of improvement of the high education system – its quality, access and inclusion; - To foster entrepreneurship in the field of education and training. The Intensive Study Programs (ISP´s) were one of the core actions of the EEN project, bringing together 1) internationally-reknowned academics and sector specialists; 2) world leading researchers in the fields of education, sciences and technology; 3) relevant and succesful entrepreneurs and startup founders; 4) expert mentors , coaches and staff from the different Universities; 5) reputed industry experts. The ISPs aimed to bring unrivaled agenda content and act as catalyst for elevating dialogue and cooperation among Universities and entrepreneurs, exchange knowledge and train with top experts, in order to improve the educational systems in the partnering countries and beyond. These events (two held face-to-face and two online, due to the COVI-19 pandemic), enabled participants to work in multinational groups with a strong multidisciplinary approach and to benefit from special learning conditions not available in a single participating University. It encouraged multinational learning of EdTech topics, helping the discovery and understanding of technological innovations and disruptions in the field of education and their possibilities of scalibility and sustainability. It also allowed teachers and staff to exchange views and share innovative teaching and training methods, including entrepreneurial models in the field of edtech, and explore possibilities of new international collaborations, that will continue after the end of the project. An tangible output of the project is the Edtech Platform (https://eetn.eu/), providing universities, research and startups with an innovative educational platform. It's is the first transnational platform of such kind at EHEA level. Totally innovative, the EEN is strongly aligned with the European Council call for training and education systems to be ‘fit for the digital age’ and the European Comission's Action Plan on Digital Learning. containing: • OER - created and curated - of high quality regarding Education and Technology; • Methodologies for university-startup collaboration in the field of EdTech; • Information on innovative digital products/tools/methodologies from the universities and their startup & business networks.